Monday, June 16, 2014

WEEK-END WRAP UP!

As hubby and I were driving home last night after our LONG day, we got to talking about just how blessed we are. In the midst of the world we live in, the tragedies, the conflict, and the sin, it is soo good sometimes to just reflect on how much the Lord has truly blessed us in spite of it all. Early on Sat. morning hubby and our middle son John took off for a quick turn around trip to Arizona to see hubby's dad for Father's day. Originally it was suppose to be all of our sons were to make the trip, but it just wasn't working out well for the other two to take the time, so they decided not to go. But I think the Lord knew just what he was doing as this allowed my hubby and John to have several hours to talk and catch up on life, which is an opportunity that does not present itself often. One of the things that I have discovered about having adult children is how rare it really is to be able to spend any real amount of time with any of them without the distraction of "the occasion" as to why you are together in the first place, or little ones needing attention, or just large groups of people. I was glad my hubby got this time with John, in fact, ESPECIALLY John. He is our "phantom" (or so we have jokingly named him sometimes lol) as it seems his circumstances keep him from joining our group family activities often. And when you throw in that he is single and without any children, it makes for just how different his life is compared to the rest of us. But all of that could be changing VERY soon...but more about that later. Hubby was able to hear all about work for John, (LOTS of good stuff there!) his relationship with his girlfriend (love that girl!) and share their thoughts on life in general. Hubby enjoyed every minute. And his dad was doing great! So far it seems as if just leaving the problems and issues with his heart alone, seems to be the best decision. He feels great, and is moving along with his life just fine. They spent several hours there visiting and even playing a little cards before heading back home. Hubby got in about 10 which really wasn't too bad, and we toppled into bed.

3 GENERATIONS OF CLASS MEN! (always have loved our last name, lol!) HUBBY HAS NO IDEA WHY HE WAS WEARING THAT SILLY GRIN, LOL. I THINK HE WAS THINKING HE WAS "COOL" TAKING A SELFIE, OR MAYBE HE WAS JUST THAT GIDDY TO BE THERE...LOL

I spent the day again with my sister Diane. It was enjoyable in every way. We met at Joannes and spent a good couple of hours slowing going through the store (we went to the super one) making sure we were not missing out on anything we might need, lol. I did get a couple of quilting tools (a circle cutter and a small rotary cutter to name a couple) since all their tools were 50% off. I intended to stock up on some fleece since it was 70% off, but never did get any. After shopping we had lunch at Kabuki (again! love that place!) and then went and saw Maleficent. Not sure why we decided to see this particular movie without any of our grandchildren along, but honestly I thoroughly enjoyed it. I might be seeing it again with some of them along. We visited the rest of the afternoon away and headed on home after that. I brought along the quilt to show her as I was positively ecstatic over the way it came out. Let me tell you I sweated some major type bullets over the whole process. I decided to wash it in the washing machine before soaking it in the solution. I put the machine on the setting that is delicate and hand wash, and then fretted and stewed prayed while it was in there, and honestly it came out sooo nice I was soo glad I had! Then I put the quilt in to soak and spent the entire day occasionally swirling the thing around in the solution as per the instructions. Oh, and you were suppose to keep the water as warm as you could, and in the sunlight as well if possible. It was doing very well, but there were some blood stains on the back of it that were NOT going away very well. Again, I decided to "help" things along. This was a BIG risk, but I have worked this with many stained things over the years and it has always worked well, so I decided to give it a try. I took a capful of straight bleach (YIKES! I know!) and then dipping my finger into the bleach I slowly rubbed the bleach around on the stain and sure enough it began to fade. I took my time (so unlike me I know) and just kept dipping and rubbing till it was practically gone. I swirled it back into the solution again and left it for a couple more hours. When I checked it again, it STILL was faintly visible, so I repeated the process until there was NOTHING more to be seen. There had been 3 areas (all close together) that had been stained, and honestly we had all been pretty sure we'd just have to live with it. At least it was on the back of the quilt! But when I finally took the quilt out of the solution a few hours later it was completely gone, and the quilt looked wonderful! I washed it AGAIN on the gentle setting and then (I was feeling REALLY confident now, lol) I actually threw it into the dryer for 20 minutes. Now I set the dryer on delicate and low as well, but still. It was still slightly damp when I took it out so I hung it on the shower pole in the bathroom to dry overnight. When I took it down in the morning to check it over I just couldn't have been more pleased. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The washing and soaking not only made the colors bright, clean and lovely, but it had "fluffed" the way a quilt was meant to. Honestly it made me wonder if it had ever really been washed that way. I tried to get some pictures of you it to show you....

WISH THE LIGHTING WAS BETTER! ISN'T IT PRETTY?

HUBBY HELD IT UP AS BEST AS HE COULD...YOU CAN SEE HOW BIG IT IS!

SHOULD HAVE TAKEN A PIC PRE-SOAK SO YOU COULD REALLY APPRECIATE THIS!

SOO PRETTY!

AND TO THINK THIS WAS ALL PUT TOGETHER BY HAND, AND THEN QUILTED BY HAND! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW LONG THIS TOOK?

It will be difficult to cut this beautiful quilt into 4 pieces, but knowing our mom WANTED us to is helping a lot. I think we will all have a corner of it and then I am thinking we will take the borders off (the tiny squares one and the plain ones together) and then re put them on. Two of the corners can have the tiny squares, and the other two the plain ones, and then we will find some coordinating fabric to bind them back up. I am both anxious to do this and somewhat hysterical at the same time. I will of course keep you posted.

Sunday we went to church (soooo glad to be back!) and then over to my youngest son's house for lunch and a visit. My dil made a simple delicious dish that she found recently on-line somewhere. It is boiled shrimp, sausage (not sure what kind!), potato and corn which was just the right amount of spicy and sooo good!

SOO TASTY!

She also made some gluten free choc chip cookies that were sooooo good, it was super hard to limit myself just one! We had a great visit with them, and then headed out to my oldest son Joe's house for dinner...I wondered if I was going to be able to work up an appetite, but as it turned out I had NO problem at all, lol My son James left this morning at 4:30 am to travel with their missionary team to Costa Rica for a week. I would appreciate any prayers you might offer for their safe travels and health while they are away, and for God to move in a mighty way from their ministry there.

JAMES AND HIS FOUR CHILDREN. SOO PROUD OF THE DADDY HE IS!

MY GRANDDAUGHTER TELLA (IN THE CENTER). I WANTED TO TAKE A PIC WITH JUST SHE AND I BUT WHEN HER LITTLE FRIENDS WANTED TO JOIN US I COULDN'T SAY NO OF COURSE, LOL. SOO SWEET!

We arrived at Joe's around 4:30 and sat down in his GORGEOUS backyard patio area and began our visit with this family. Don't know if I have mentioned before how much I love Joe's house. The trees are sooo large and beautiful and you can almost always here the breeze as it gently blows through them and it brings back memories of my childhood spent in the mountains surrounded by them. Soo peaceful and calm. Cody entertained us all. He was in such a good mood, and soo funny. We met their two new puppies! We heard stories about Evans new job that is going VERY well, and then feasted on Leah's DELICIOUS beef stew! One of hubby's all time favorite meals is beef stew, so our dil graciously made him up a batch for Father's Day. Oh my it was sooo yummy. She was careful NOT to thicken the sauce with flour (used cornstarch instead) to keep it gluten free for me. How much I appreciate my dil's adjusting their recipes for me! And for dessert their was strawberry shortcake. I just had strawberries and some whip cream and they were as good as they could be. Little Jeff was not there as he is spending a week at a beach house with his best friend. I missed him. All in all it was just a good week-end, and more importantly my husband felt the love and appreciation from all of his children. He IS such a good dad and grandpa, it was just as it should be. How fortunate all of my children and grandchildren are to have been blessed by him.

SWEET CODY SITTING WITH GRANDPA...HE IS JUST AS BROWN AS A BERRY FROM SWIMMING IN THEIR POOL. GUESS HE IS DOING REALLY WELL WITH HIS SWIM LESSONS TOO! notice hubby is wearing his new shirt i made him!

CODY WAS ACTING SILLY, BUT CUTE PIC!

JOE TOOK THIS OF ALL OF US

I have a BUSY BUSY week of sewing planned. The weather is just gorgeous! High 70's and nice breezes. Hope you all have a good week, many blessings to you all!

THESE TWO CUTIES HAD A GOOD DAY WITH THEIR DADDY TOO. SOO APPRECIATE THE GOOD FATHER HE IS TO THESE TWO! WE MISSED THEM FOR SURE ON THE DAY!

How special it was that your hubby and son were able to visit your FIL!And I enjoyed seeing all the pics of your family Father's Day celebrations.Your Mom's quilt is pretty. I see why it will be hard to cut it, but understand it must be!

Your right it's hard to have one on one with children once they are adults, how neat that your husband and son were able to have that time together. Lots of memories to hold near and dear made this past weekend, I'm glad you all were able to celebrate the dads in your family. Love the quilt, it cleaned up really nice.

My goodness, not sure you could have crammed one more thing into your weekend. We were right here yesterday all by ourselves. Our son and family were out of town and of course, I daughter doesn't live here. So, Poppa and I had a low profile day. :o)))

How nice Debbie. You have such a lovely family. I love that quilt. I would be having such a hard time cutting it into pieces. It is really big though and the work was fantastic.Your grand children are just lovely.You are so blessed. I am glad you had such a nice Father's Day. I am glad you week is nice as well.